Agricultural Biotechnology in Southern Africa: A Regional Synthesis 477mainly because of the less intensive nature of this technique in terms of human
and infrastructural resources.
Modern biotechnological techniques, which include genetic engineering, are
being employed in a few of the countries, namely Malawi, South Africa and Zim-
babwe, and to a small extent in Mauritius and Zambia. Of all these countries, only
South Africa has reached the commercialization stage insofar as products of genetic
engineering are concerned. The rest are still at the laboratory research stage.
Tied closely to the issue of research is the development and implementation of
regulations to monitor the research and products thereof. Only three countries in the
region, namely Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe, have legal mechanisms for
biosafety, that is, the safe development and application of biotechnology. The rest are
still at varying stages in the development of their biosafety systems. All countries of
the SADC region are signatories to the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol, an addendum
to the CBD, which governs safe trans-boundary movement of living modified organ-
isms, among other provisions for ensuring safety in biotechnology.
Table 19.1 gives details on the status of development and use of various bio-
technological techniques in the southern African countries.
Source: Sasson, 1993
Figure 19.1 Gradient of biotechnologies in Southern African Development Community
countries in terms of complexity and costs, 1993